Devil of the Highlands Page 0,64

the beast glaring at them and snorting its rage.

Cullen was off his horse and rushing to Evelinde's side almost before his horse stopped.

"Are ye injured?" he asked, anxiously drawing her to her feet.

"Nay. I am fine," Evelinde assured him breathlessly, watching the bull with wide, wary eyes as if she feared he might still get out and come after them.

Cullen closed his eyes briefly with relief and shook his head, thinking that the woman would be the death of him. She was forever getting herself into trouble and scaring the life out of him. One of these times she was going to get herself killed with her foolish stunts, he thought, his relief giving way to anger. The next thing he knew he was bellowing, "What were ye doing, ye daft woman?"

Evelinde turned wide eyes to him, opened her mouth, closed it again, then clucked her tongue irritably and pushed herself away to march toward the path.

Cullen immediately chased after her. He had never been so furious in his life. Half of him wanted to beat her for her stupidity, and the other half wanted to throw her to the ground, pull her skirt up, and love her until she didn't have the strength to try to get herself killed again. He couldn't do either, of course, so he simply caught her by the arm, and swung her around to face him as he repeated, "What were ye doing?"

Evelinde blew her breath upward on a sigh, sending the tendrils of hair that had escaped her bun flying and then muttered, "Where have I heard that question before?"

"Wife," he growled, his temper barely controlled.

"I borrowed your pin the other day to help keep little Maggie's blue gown from gaping."

Cullen frowned at her with confusion, unsure what that had to do with anything until he recalled how she'd been searching the back of her skirt for something when one of the men on the wall had called out to him that a party was approaching. The pin, obviously, he thought.

"But when I climbed the fence it came undone and fell out in the paddock. That is what I was doing when you and the Comyns found me on my hands and knees that day," she explained. "I fear I forgot about it until this morning when you were looking for it. I came down after breaking my fast to find it. And I did," she added brightly, holding it out in her hand. "I had just found it when I realized Angus was charging on me."

Cullen stared at the pin in the palm of her hand with amazement. "Ye braved the bull for me pin?"

"Aye. Nay," Evelinde corrected, then sighed, and said, "He was not in the paddock."

Cullen realized then that he had never explained to her that the paddock was L-shaped. Fergus had mentioned it the other day to calm him, but the man had spoken so low he doubted she'd heard it. Evelinde must have glanced the length of the stables and not seen the beast before and thought the paddock empty, he realized. This was an instance when his lack of talking was definitely detrimental, he thought grimly and began to explain what he should have at the time. "The paddock is L-shaped, wife. He was probably—"

"I checked the entire paddock, Cullen." She interrupted. "Angus was not outside, and the door leading from the barn to his paddock was closed when I climbed in."

"She's right, me laird. Angus should have been in his pen."

Cullen glanced around at that announcement to see an older man approaching in a hopping limp. The man was Hamish, who was in charge of these paddocks, and the limp was from an old injury, a gift from Angus some years back.

"I hadn't yet let him out today," the man said once he'd reached them. "Angus went in to eat when the sun was setting last night, and I closed the door and dropped the bar. I have yet to let him out today. He shouldna have been in the paddock."

"Well someone let him out," Cullen said grimly.

The man nodded slowly. "Aye, it would seem so."

Cullen frowned, then both men turned to peer at Evelinde. She stiffened under their gazes and then impatiently. "Well, I can assure you it was not I."

"Then it was someone else," Cullen growled, anger stirring in him. Whoever it was had nearly got his wife killed. A soft touch on his arm drew his gaze down to see that Evelinde was